Childhood Map

Discover the amazing things 5-year-olds are learning — from climbing and jumping to friendships, feelings, and first words on a page. Each skill comes with fun activities you can try together.

Physical & Motor 8 › Sensory 8 › Executive 7 › Cognitive 6 › Language 5 › Communication 5 › Emotional 5 › Social 6 › Self-Care 7 › Literacy 4 › Math 5 › Creative & Artistic 5 › World & Science 5 ›
by Robert Pankowecki
Understanding the World & Scientific Thinking

Exploring, investigating, and making sense of the natural and social world through observation, inquiry, and reasoning.

Sources (7)
  • UK EYFS (Understanding the World)
  • Head Start ELOF (Scientific Reasoning)
  • Montessori (Cultural Studies)
  • HighScope (Science & Technology, Social Studies)
  • E.D. Hirsch ("What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know")
  • Singapore NEL (Discovery of the World)
  • Finland ECEC (Exploring and Interacting with My Environment)
5 Subdomains
Observation & Scientific Inquiry10 › Natural World Knowledge › Cause and Effect › Tools, Technology & Simple Machines8 › People, Culture & Community ›
Cause and Effect

Understanding that actions produce results and events have causes, forming the basis of scientific reasoning.

Examples & Achievements

  • Explains why something happened ("the plant died because we forgot to water it")
  • Predicts what will happen if they take a specific action
  • Understands that mixing colors produces a new color
  • Recognizes cause-effect in daily life (push button → light turns on)
  • Describes what happened and why in a simple experiment

How to Measure

  • Provides a logical cause-effect explanation in 3 out of 4 scenarios
  • Predicts a correct outcome for a familiar cause-effect scenario
  • Explains the result of a simple science experiment using cause-effect language
Sources (4)
  • Head Start ELOF
  • Piaget
  • ASQ-3
  • HighScope

Childhood Map › Understanding the World & Scientific Thinking

Cause and Effect

Understanding that actions produce results and events have causes, forming the basis of scientific reasoning.

Examples & Achievements

How to Measure

Sources